The Winds of Change

                                                                     

Brace yourself, Trumpers.  I'm about to say something mildly positive about Donald Trump.

One outstanding result of the Trump phenomena has been the joy of seeing the Republican establishment knocked flat on their ass.  Like many conservatives, I was disheartened when Congressional Republicans just recently passed another bloated multi-trillion dollar budget, replete with the same massive spending orgy as Congress has approved in past years, whether Democrat controlled or Republican controlled.   Republicans were so damned fearful that, if they took a stand, and created another government shutdown, it would hurt their election chances this November.

How ironic; failing to take a stand, the Republicans now face total destruction this coming November.  With 65% of Americans absolutely refusing to support Trump the coming election ought to present a field day for the Democrats.  The Dems will almost surely take back the Senate, and will most likely raise their numbers in the House, thus necessitating a higher coalition of Democrat votes to get anything passed in the House.

I don't for a minute believe Donald Trump is the architect of the conservative revolt.  Instead he is the vessel Americans are using to express their anger and frustration at the establishment.  (Much of that anger and frustration is based on pure ignorance of how the three branches of government works...Congress can do little about liberal Supreme Court decisions, nor can they, in present numbers, override an Obama veto, which he has exercised numerous times.)  

However, there are things the Republicans could have done.  They could have stood strong on the spending bill, let Barry shut down the government, and let the chips fall where they may.  Time has proven they would not have been any worse off than they are now.

And much could have come from that.  For example, Congress could have cut funding for Planned Parenthood, insisted that the current $12 billion a year in illegal immigrant Child Tax Credits be stopped immediately.  And there are any number of spending projects that are fraught with fraud, waste and abuse that should have been killed long ago, including some of their own little "earmarks" that sweetened the mood of voters in their districts.

I still bristle at a report released a couple of years ago...about how each Congressman spends more than a million a year for Starbucks coffee and Duncan donuts for their respective staffs....taxpayer money totally wasted.  No doubt there are hundreds of these little slush funds put in place to provide comfort and sustenance to "the elites".

The supreme sense of entitlement that our representatives assume has created a bubbling of anger that is spilling out all over America.  The benefactors of that anger has been Trump for the Republicans and Bernie Sanders for the Democrats...solid proof that pure anger, without reason, can have stunningly bad results.

But let's remember that it was the Tea Party that first raised a stink...not Donald Trump.  It was everyday citizens, without an ounce of political ambition, that gathered in town halls all across America and raised holy hell about the intrusion of Obamacare into their lives, Obama's pilfering of $600 billion in Medicare funds to pay for free healthcare for his devoted green check voters, and against massive government spending in the face of $19 trillion in debt.

A tornado can wreak massive destruction.  It has the capacity to destroy life and property.  But, the victims nearly always rebuild, usually for something better, something stronger and more lasting.

American anger has certainly reached tornado pitch this year.  Perhaps that anger will destroy the Republican Party.  And, perhaps the results of this year's political tornado will be a stronger, more responsive government.  Perhaps not.  We don't know yet.

But it has been a fine thing indeed to see the political establishment quake in their boots, their eyes shiny in wonder, their confidence in "business as usual" shaken to it's core.  We see it on both sides; Hillary's moving even further to the left, and the current crop of Republican candidates moving just right of "Attila The Hun".

I abhor Donald Trump.  But I've always been an admirer of what the Tea Party stands for.  They were laughed at for years, they were jeered and called "domestic terrorists" and "wild eyed radicals".  No one's laughing anymore.  And the winds of change are strong.  The media and political pundits can only sit in awe as they say "we've never seen anything like this before".  And the Washington establishment is literally shitting their pants as they hear the rumbling of that tornado getting closer and closer.

After it's all over we can only hope for the best.